Andrew Doud 0:08

All right, everyone, it's Thursday. I'm Major Dow. Time for our Happening in the Hamptons podcast, our weekly breakdown of the Hamptons market, new listings, and events on the East End. We are sponsored today by New York Title Abstract, the Hamptons leading title insurance firm. Visit NewYorkTitle.com. We have Steve Glick, Dave Retiner, and today Miss Sarah Minardi, a return guest. Hello, welcome back.

Sarah Minardi 0:29

Thank you.

Andrew Doud 0:29

How are you?

Sarah Minardi 0:30

Doing great, thanks.

Andrew Doud 0:31

Busy. I know you're busy. You're always busy. Busy. Um, but you have kind of an interesting topic. I don't think we've covered anything related to this.

Sarah Minardi 0:40

It's a significant change. So this is in um this is I'm talking about the property condition disclosure statement or the PCDS. So the property disclosure condition disclosure statement is something that came about in 02, 2002. And as there's three duties involved. Uh as an agent or as a as a real estate professional, we are supposed to give this document over to sellers. Sellers are then supposed to fill it out, and then they're supposed to give it to their attorney, and their attorney gives it to the um the buyer for the buyer's attorney. So but what there's two important changes to this. What has always happened in the past is there has been an opt-out, and attorneys for the most part have said to their clients after real estate agents give them the PCDS, and our our directive have has always been here's this document, give it to your attorney, speak with your attorney about it. Um the attorneys have always, for the most part, as practice, gone with the opt-out instead of having their client fill this out and maybe fill it out incorrectly or not to the best of their knowledge. The attorneys have said, you know what, guess what? There's an opt-out, you can pay $500 at closing as a um as a credit to the buyer. The buyer gets that at closing, and you know, hands are hands are wiped clean, and that's the end of that. Nothing, nothing goes on after that. Um, so this has been in existence since 02, and that's been the general practice. What happened yesterday is as of March 20th, 2024, this opt-out is now gone.

Dave Rattiner 2:31

So it's made.

Sarah Minardi 2:40

There's new new questions in it that pertain to flood, flood insurance, flood disclosure, that kind of thing. The reason why that came about was because it was deemed that New York State's flood risk disclosure law um got a failing grade. So the legislature added that to the PCDS. And so sellers now have to fill out those that information.

Steve Glick 3:09

So can you back it up? What information is on this uh PCDS? Okay, so what is this?

Sarah Minardi 3:16

I will tell you. Oof. Seven pages.

Steve Glick 3:19

Seven pages.

Sarah Minardi 3:20

Seven pages, and it is Give me some random, give me some questions. Fifty-six questions.

Steve Glick 3:27

All about the properties condition.

Sarah Minardi 3:28

All about the property condition.

Steve Glick 3:30

Okay.

Sarah Minardi 3:30

They are and the answers are either yes, no, unknown, or not applicable.

Steve Glick 3:36

So it's like for a whole lot. So the question I'm looking, is lead plumbing present?

Sarah Minardi 3:41

Yes. So very interesting. Um a lot of this, the the information that I've received and the things that I've read up about this is there are certain there's a lot of ambiguity to this um to this disclosure statement, unfortunately, um which the legislature didn't intend. But um, you know, you can look at a a home inspector can look at the piping in a house for plumbing and can see whether, you know, if it's if it's lead or not, but uh up until something like 1988 that used lead in soldering.

Steve Glick 4:18

So you know, there's a lot of people I mean, there's a lot in here, like how old's the roof, you know, any known defects. So all this stuff.

Sarah Minardi 4:25

Right.

Steve Glick 4:25

I'm a homeowner. I have no idea half of these questions. So what's the advice to sellers? Like, what do you how do I fill this out? You're handing me the are you advising them?

Dave Rattiner 4:35

No, you would hire I would not advise.

Sarah Minardi 4:39

You would be like, nope, as an agent, I do not help you.

Dave Rattiner 4:45

They're that's not a good real estate agent.

Sarah Minardi 4:48

Agreed. Agreed. So the so the thing to know about this PCDS is that it's not only required that the seller fill it out, it's required that it be given to the buyer and the buyer's attorney prior to the contract being fully executed. Uh-huh. So it must be done. So the thing to know is as a seller, you're putting your house on the market for sale. You need to fill out this disclosure statement. You need to fill it, fill it out as accurately as possible. The most accurate way to get it filled out is to have a seller's inspection prior to putting your house on the market.

Andrew Doud 5:30

I was just gonna say that. And they won't go in the contract if this isn't filled out.

Sarah Minardi 5:34

You cannot have a fully executed contract of sale on your home without this statement being filled out.

Dave Rattiner 5:41

So the script is kind of flipped in terms of advice because usually the buyer gets the inspection. Buyer always.

Sarah Minardi 5:48

Buyer always gets the inspection. The attorney will not change anything with that. Um, a buyer wants to get an inspection. They it's caveat emptur, it's buyer beware. You need to know what you're buying.

Dave Rattiner 6:00

But let me ask you, you need to know what you're buying. If the seller hires uh an inspection, an inspector to aid in filling this out, doesn't that give the buyer a sense of you know security?

Sarah Minardi 6:14

Of course. I think and and any seller who does do that and uh abides by my advice.

Dave Rattiner 6:21

It's kind of a smart idea.

Sarah Minardi 6:22

Um you get the seller's inspection. We saw this a lot um uh after the the mortgage you know industry crashed and in 08-09, many owners were getting their own home inspection so that they could preemptively know what needed to be fixed and fix it if they needed to, if it needed to be done, or they could price their home accordingly, whereby a buyer would come in. Guess what? Here's the home inspection, here's everything you need to know. That's why I price it this way. The roof is 30 years old, we need a new roof, that's why the price is da-da-da. Here's everything you need to know. Guess what? It's going to make it that much easier for a buyer to step up and make an offer because of the reason that you've got all the information in front of you.

Dave Rattiner 7:07

If a buyer sees this and goes to make the offer, is it still wise for them to get their own inspection? Hands down.

Sarah Minardi 7:14

Okay. Hands down. They definitely it's it's on their plate, and their attorney isn't going to advise advise them otherwise to get a home inspection. Because, you know, look, the seller hired that person to do the home inspection. The buyer should hire their person to do the home inspection.

SPEAKER_02 7:30

Sure.

Sarah Minardi 7:30

And the the the thing about this, which I think is really interesting, is it's only this whole situation, you gotta do it as a seller. It's mandatory. You want to get into contract, you want to get into a contract as quickly as possible. Have this done, have it ready. And the buyer, it's gonna make it that much easier for a buyer to step up and make an offer. It's gonna be that much easier for you to sell your home.

Dave Rattiner 7:53

It goes back to the representation thing with a good real estate agent. It's like if you have Sarah on your side, she just gets all these ducks in a row. The New York Title Report, you know, the CNRs, this you should get a survey done in advance.

Sarah Minardi 8:06

You need to know if your property's overcleared. A seamless transaction.

Dave Rattiner 8:10

You want a seamless transaction. You never want to be in that position where the buyer is closing table. Yeah, you never want to be in that position where the buyer says, Can I do this? And the response is, I'll get back to you.

unknown 8:21

Right. Yeah.

Sarah Minardi 8:22

You know, because you never want to be in that position as a seller. And the more things that a seller can do in advance of getting that offer, they're gonna end up spending less money on their attorney fees. Yeah. They're gonna spend up spend less money, you know, having their wheels spun because an a, you know, a buyer now wants to get a roof, you know, uh inspection to have it have find out what the cost is gonna be for the repair or replacement. It's it's only going to be feathers in a seller's cap to have those red flags dealt with in advance.

Andrew Doud 8:58

Even if somebody wants to buy um, you know, no contingent, right?

Sarah Minardi 9:01

Like just as is no contingency, that's still gonna be filled out, which I guess doesn't really matter because the real thing is it all comes down to it's not even the real issue, is not even the during during the the the contract, and it's it's after the fact. It's all the potential issues after the fact. And that's what attorneys are gonna be worried about, and that's why the sellers um always were advised to pay that $500 credit at closing because you didn't want things to then come up later on. And really, we're not talking about chasing down so-and-so contractor down in you know, Boca who had shoddy work as far as you know, um the siding or something or the sheetrock. We're talking about foundations, right? We're talking about flood zones, yeah.

Dave Rattiner 9:53

Flooding.

Sarah Minardi 9:54

Yeah, we're talking, I mean, uh the flood zone stuff, that's all like you can find that all find that all out on online. You know what between the EPA and the um you know whatnot, you can see where the flood zone is, you can see what all that sort of thing. But um those after the fact big issues are gonna be extremely litigious for um for buyers after the fact. If after the fact, if they're they find something really bad that happens, you know.

Dave Rattiner 10:20

They can go out, they can go after the seller if that's not yeah.

Steve Glick 10:23

So I got a question, Sarah. So that you said this goes into effect yesterday. So I have something in contract. It's closing in in a month from now. Steve with the curveball.

Sarah Minardi 10:33

Yeah. You know, it uh I don't have the answer to that. If the contract has already been signed, it's either I almost feel I'll go on the I'll go on the conservative side, and it it almost feels to me like they still have to have it.

Steve Glick 10:52

I feel like they still have to do it because that that $500 credit happens at closing to the case.

Sarah Minardi 10:56

It happens at closing.

Steve Glick 10:57

Yeah. So if that's no longer available, right, then they're gonna have to fill this out. So I feel like you know, check with the powers that be. You may have, you know, really attorney. Yeah, real estate agents may have to go back to their sellers and say, hey, speak speak with your attorney.

Sarah Minardi 11:11

The attorney, the attorneys should have been they have had plenty of advanced warning on this. It's the law. Um the property condition disclosure statement, it needs to be filled out. It's the law, it everything changed as of yesterday. It the repeal of the opt-out is gone. And um, I think it's interesting to note that the $500 credit at closing, when this whole thing came about, this this um disclosure statement, the $500 credit is pretty much in line with what a home inspection cost at that time in 2002. Home inspection cost about $500. So, you know, that was where the whole credit came back.

Steve Glick 11:52

Back then, not anymore.

Sarah Minardi 11:53

You know, depending on what we're doing. So it's uh it's very interesting.

Steve Glick 11:56

All right, well, this is great information, and I feel that um, you know, you're you have uh good knowledge about it, you're well versed in it, and you're advising your sellers. Yeah, I feel like you can almost teach it. Yeah, I mean I think it's great knowledge. I mean, uh kudos to you for understanding it and breaking it down for us. So anyone that's listening, I'm sure um this podcast would be shared many times because of this. Because people don't understand it.

Sarah Minardi 12:20

People need to share and they need to understand, and it's it's another it's another point of when you're going on a sales pitch for a seller. You gotta just let them know. I mean, the more information, the more education you can give your seller and also your buyer at the onset, the more trust they'll have in you and and the they'll work with you.

Andrew Doud 12:41

So let's talk about the numbers since uh so yeah. What do you got from this?

Steve Glick 12:47

We've got a good week, guys. All right, um, so this past week, it's it's been a busy march. I'd say it's one of the most active marches I've ever seen here in the Hamptons, and over the past week is no different. There were 30 listings that went into contract from West Hampton to Montauk. Last year there were 27. That's an increase of 11%. In 2022, there were 40 listings that went into contract in one week. So compared to this week, that's a decrease of 25%. But the breakdown of the 30 transactions this week, there was one between 10 and 20, 3 between 5 and 10 million, 3 between 3 and 5 million, 7 between 2 and 3 million, 12 between 1 and 2 million, and 4 under a million. The dollar volume this past week was $87 million. Last year was $61 million, so that's an increase of 43%. In 2022, the dollar volume was $144 million. That's a decrease of 24%. New listings coming onto the market. 35 came onto the market. So with 30 going into the contract, that increases the inventory by five listings. And the breakdown of the 35 new listings, all different price categories, and some significant properties came onto the market. There were two over 20 million, 11 between 10 and 20 million. So, you know, that's 13 prop properties over 10 million dollars that came on the market. Well, that's what you were saying about March.

Dave Rattiner 14:03

We were so we were watching them come through. We were like, oh my goodness, that one is a contract.

Steve Glick 14:09

10 million plus properties. It was kind of strange. So now we have 13 over 10 coming onto the market. Some people have six good days out there. Six between five and ten, three between three and five, three between two and three, seven between one and two, three under a million. The inventory stands at eighteen hundred and twenty-nine total listings, fourteen hundred and three active, and four hundred and twenty-six in contract. So um a good week to see listings going into contract, new listings coming onto the market. It's a robust inventory, um, market going on. It's very it's balanced, so it's a good see good thing to see as we head into spring. It's now spring. Yeah.

Andrew Doud 14:42

It is spring.

Dave Rattiner 14:43

You know what's an unbelievable property you have, Sarah, is the uh 18th Skim.

Sarah Minardi 14:47

I know. It is unbelievable. It's um let me talk about it. 18th Skim Hampton Road in East Hampton, south of the highway. This is the 10th home built by Bluefin General Contracting, an epitome of of construction on the East End. Um always they they build to sell, but build custom.

Dave Rattiner 15:13

So And the quality, right?

Sarah Minardi 15:15

The quality, the sight, the sighting, the the landscaping, the every all the choices are stunning. It's it's it's um also it's been staged very thoughtfully. And all you know, there are things about it, like the all the light fixtures were purchased by the builder. They stay. All the closets are built out. They're it's it's ready to go. We've been having so much activity on it, and somebody's gonna get an incredible house. And the other thing to note is that the builder is so hands-on. I mean, he really hangs around with the with the um new buyers after the fact to help in any way, shape, or form. And it's just it's primo.

Dave Rattiner 15:58

And he's not the new kid on the block anymore. He's been doing this for a while, though.

Sarah Minardi 16:02

Beautiful, beautiful product. So 18 Skim Hampton Road in East Hampton South. It's on the market for 10,499,000. I'm happy to show it to you and get you in.

Dave Rattiner 16:13

This place is really neat. You talked about the staging, you know. We toured it.

Sarah Minardi 16:17

Vesta, Vesta staged it. Stunning.

Dave Rattiner 16:19

We toured it in the um the lower level with the poker table. With the poker table, uh, Mike Tyson painting. Yeah. It was like, this is so cool. No, it's um, it's Muhammad Ali. But close.

Sarah Minardi 16:30

Close. Yeah, it's very, it's it's really chic. And um just just the amount of thought and money and everything that went into it to make it just just a premier option for for buyers today is is really fantastic.

Andrew Doud 16:48

I would just buy this furnished if I had 10 and a half million. It's nice. It's like ready to go.

Sarah Minardi 16:52

It's ready to go.

Andrew Doud 16:53

And is this next to or backs up to farmland or reserve?

Sarah Minardi 16:58

So it backs up to almost 45 acres of an agricultural conservation easement that's with the Pecanic Land Trust. Oh, nice. It's owned by a family over there that's had it for ages and ages. I I I don't quote me on this, but I think that might be the property where all the former um where all the um structures that are now East Hampton Town, town hall. Like town. Oh, really? Where they're not. Yeah, I think I think it might be all those structures might be from that property. I haven't researched it enough, but I know those were donated from the Demon Eels. The Demon Eal family, and it was off of a huge property off a further lane. So if I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but it's close by.

Andrew Doud 17:42

We'll call it a potential fun fact.

Sarah Minardi 17:43

Yes.

Andrew Doud 17:44

Okay.

Sarah Minardi 17:44

Fun fact.

Andrew Doud 17:45

Um fact. That's great. Okay, so 18 Skim Hampton. Dave, what's happened this weekend? Spring the spring. Springtime. I mean it's cold today, but whatever.

Dave Rattiner 17:53

One thing to do this weekend that the whole world must do. And it's go to the Montauk St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Sarah Minardi 18:01

Oh, yeah, Sunday.

Dave Rattiner 18:02

Gotta love March.

Sarah Minardi 18:03

I'll be I'll be marching in it with the Girl Scouts.

Dave Rattiner 18:05

You're marching with the Girl Scouts?

Sarah Minardi 18:06

Oh, yeah.

Dave Rattiner 18:07

That's right. We bought four. Did you bring cookies? Yeah. I got I have a couple of nice.

Sarah Minardi 18:12

I do have cookies in my car, but they're delivery for other people.

Dave Rattiner 18:16

You can still get them, you can still get them online, everyone. We got some tag-alongs in the back. My favorite. Hammering with peanut butter. Oh my god. Oh, good. You just dip them like a like.

Sarah Minardi 18:26

You put them on you put you put peanut butter on top.

Dave Rattiner 18:29

It's so it's such like a you have a you have a method, right? I go beyond my calorie count in one bite. But I basically take a tag along and then I dip it into peanut butter and then just hammer the whole thing in one bite. It's you know, it's for the protein. Okay. You know, you need the peanut butter for the protein.

Sarah Minardi 18:45

That's excellent, excellent source of protein.

Dave Rattiner 18:47

Yeah. Excellent source of protein.

Sarah Minardi 18:49

And you're supporting the Girl Scouts at the same time, so it's all it's all beneficial to the community.

Dave Rattiner 18:54

If you've never been, Montauk comes alive uh during the St. Patrick's Day Parade. It is a lot of fun, and it's I would say it's like family fun. It's not just uh St. Patrick's Day. Yeah, it's it's definitely family fun, you know. Um as well as you know, party fun as well. But you know, 40 to 50,000 people show up. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Do not trust the weather. I've never weather do not trust the weather. So if you're like, we're gonna go and the weather says 55 degrees and you're trying to break out your your vest or something, no, no, no, no, no, no. The wind that ocean wind over in Montauk will just rip right through you. So what day is this on? Dress like it's winter. It's on Sunday.

Andrew Doud 19:38

Sunday.

Dave Rattiner 19:38

Oh, good.

Andrew Doud 19:39

That's good because I think Saturday doesn't look so great. Okay, great. Sunday.

Dave Rattiner 19:41

Yeah, so have a Sunday. Yeah. Sunday. I mean, I'm gonna go. I mean, how do I not go?

Sarah Minardi 19:46

I'll see you out there, Dave.

Dave Rattiner 19:46

Yeah, how do I not go? Um, so that'll be fun. Then um, this caught my eye because I associate you with this place. Are you still involved with the L VIS?

Sarah Minardi 19:55

Of course, yes, Ladies Village Improvement Society of East Hampton.

Dave Rattiner 19:59

All right, so L VIS has the Easter egg hunt uh on Saturday, so on March 23rd at 11 a.m. Oh, they might change that. Oh, they they will. I don't know.

Sarah Minardi 20:09

The rain's looking the rain, yeah. We'll see.

Dave Rattiner 20:11

Watch out for the uh rain, I guess. Um, or reach out to Sarah. Sure. You know, my numbers everywhere.

Sarah Minardi 20:19

You can find me.

Dave Rattiner 20:20

Yes. But there's an Easter egg hunt uh from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. And you know, gotta support L VIS. LVIS is a great, great spot, and it's actually a pretty good place to get clothes to. Like really great clothes. All the really people of the Hamptons, they don't donate their clothes to resell at L VIS, so you can catch like some pretty unbelievable deals there.

Sarah Minardi 20:40

If uh I have a fun, fun story, just real quick on that. At the LVIS thrift shops, there was one I was I worked there for a little while as a volunteer before I was a member, and I remember finding a pair of Christopher Fisher cashmere black lounge pants and I for six dollars. And I held six dollars and I hand hold held them up and I said, Who would get rid of these? And another woman looked at me and said, Someone who has many more. And I said, You're right. So you can get some really great finds and books and furniture. So anyway, all right. That's the LBIS in East Hampton.

Dave Rattiner 21:17

Yeah, they need an online store, like an eBay store or something. Yeah, maybe. Um, all right, so uh Love Bites also is this weekend, so that's Saturday, March 23rd at 7 p.m. at the clubhouse to support Katie's courage. Um so there's gonna be top chefs and restaurants there, and then there's gonna be a golf raffle and silent auction. But just looking at some of the sponsors, it's like literally the whole Hamptons is sponsoring this event. Um, you know, Hamptons Coffee, Golden Pear, Art of Eating, Dreeson's, all just wonderful places. So, you know, you might want to do that too.

Sarah Minardi 21:57

That's a fantastic that's Saturday night, right?

Dave Rattiner 22:00

Unlimited beer, wine, and tastings. And I'm sure that means you get unlimited alcohol-free beer if you want. Um, then it's all inclusive ticket. It's $75 a person. There's gonna be a DJ. It's at the clubhouse. Friggin' Chef Peter Ambrose from Peter Ambrose Catering. I mean, how do you how do you beat that? He's the best, Peter Ambrose.

Sarah Minardi 22:21

That's a great event. Really, really fun event.

Dave Rattiner 22:24

All right.

Steve Glick 22:25

And then your DJ, Dave, DJ Michael's there.

Dave Rattiner 22:27

Again. Yeah. I always wanted to be a DJ.

Steve Glick 22:30

Oh.

Dave Rattiner 22:31

But I always want to be a fake DJ. I always wanted to like have like a pre-recorded night. And just stand there? And just stand there. But pretend. Like push buttons and like pretend I'm doing something. I just feel like that would be so funny. And that would be my shtick. Like everyone would know that that's my shtick. Like I wouldn't be lying that I'm doing that. But I would my energy would just my job would just be to put it in.

SPEAKER_00 22:53

It would be obvious.

Dave Rattiner 22:54

It's not too late, Dave. It's kind of like lip syncing your dreams. Yeah. It's like lip, it's like lip syncing, but DJing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Andrew Doud 23:00

You're the Milly vanilli of DJing.

Dave Rattiner 23:02

I feel like I'm on to something. You know? Why not?

Sarah Minardi 23:05

Dave, that's not a bad idea.

Dave Rattiner 23:06

What would the DJ name? DJ Dave? DJ. I gotta come up with something better now. Next week we expect an answer. Jazzy Dave or something.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

Give comments, give give suggestions.

Dave Rattiner 23:22

So I feel like those are three really good events, unless you want to bring up a restaurant or something. Um I try to stick to three though, so that's what's going on this weekend in the Hamptons.

Andrew Doud 23:31

All right. Good deal. Sarah, anything else to add before we wrap it up? Good information on uh on this rule change. And um, you know, obviously, if you need uh any clarification on that, I guess Sarah is available and she can also help you buy and sell. Um I guess enjoy the spring once it starts warming up. We're officially in the season.

Sarah Minardi 23:53

The groundhog, I will say again, predicted an early spring. So let's just get out of March. We'll be okay.

Andrew Doud 23:58

That's it. All right. We're almost out. We're almost out. We really are. Um is this is this last Thursday in March? Nope. No. Okay, great. So we'll see you next Thursday. In March. In March for one last time. Until then, I'm Andrew Dowd. Thanks for listening, and that's what's happening in the Hamptons.